To Destroy an Avenger
by blackamber41
Summary: 3 part story. Takes place after AoU with Pietro back. After some peace a new team of enhanced appear, under the control of a famous marvel villain, and intend to take the Avenger's place. But all it takes is one to start unraveling the string of lies they had been told and find themselves needing the Avengers to help free them. Rated M to be safe
1. Chapter 1

**Disclaimer:** I do not own any characters that were created by Marvel comics.

Edit: so I realized my choice of paragraph break wasn't translating through the doc uploader, so I'm doing a quick repost of the chapters fixing this. Sorry for the inconvenience or false excitement I may instill.

* * *

Prologue

The building stood alone on a small island not too far off the coast of New York, it was believed to be an abandoned facility at the very heart of the land mass, but the experiments being conducted deep beneath the ground floor said otherwise. Rows upon rows of cells, with heavy doors akin to that of an asylum filled the third lowest floor, directly below a security floor, but above the labs and training grounds. The labs were not all the traditional steel table with basic lab equipment, some had instruments of torture, meant to extract information or bring about a person's potential.

In one such room held a large tank filled ¾ of the way with water. A young child was struggling to keep her head above the water, with no ledge to grab hold of when she tired. She had been at this for a few hours and was now finding it harder and harder to keep herself from drowning. She was coughing and spluttering water as her arms and legs were growing weaker and weaker.

"Help! Please help me!" she begged, before slipping below the surface, though she knew her pleas would fall on deaf ears. They had never pulled her out before, why would they this time? They would wait until she drowned, resuscitate her, and then in two days she would be back in the tank. She didn't know what they wanted, what they were waiting for her to do; perhaps if she did, she could finally end this.

She couldn't resurface, her strength had left her. Darkness swirled and the next thing she felt was the volts coursing through her body as the white coats pressed the paddles of the defibrillator against her bare skin. She felt the familiar invasive push of the old ventilator tube that ran down her throat; now that she was awake it would be removed and replaced with a respirator mask, at least until they were certain that she had recovered from the drowning.

She squeezed her eyes shut, wishing that they couldn't resuscitate her, that she was in fact dead and wouldn't have to go back.

"Return her to her cell," a voice she had often heard, drifted into the room. "And give her another dose of the formula, with luck our next test will cause her gift to appear."

"What if it never does sir?" One of the scientists asked.

"She hasn't survived this long from pure luck, Strucker's patients have all rejected the serum; he thinks that it will only be possible with a higher power, _our_ experiments have proved that to be false. 0765 may be stubborn, but the serum would have killed her if it wasn't compatible. The others all developed gifts to aid them against the tests, to help them get out of them. We'll see what kind of ability this test will give her."

0765\. That was all they referred to her as. She knew no other name but that one. The same four numbers as was on her cell. The table she was on was moving, back to her cage that consisted of just a single bed, bath, and toilet. Located between a cell that held a young man that could dent the metal walls and another young woman who could make the lights flicker.

She was moved onto her bed, the portable respirator placed on the small table next to her bed. The scientist tied a tight tourniquet around her upper arm, bringing the vein at her elbow joint into view. He injected a small vial of a translucent red drug into her bloodstream; she remembered the first time she had been given the serum, and knew she was in for a painful night. The scientist released the tourniquet and gave her arm a gentle rub before exiting the room, locking it securely behind him. She groaned, a night of pain, a day of recovery, and then she had to look forward to the tank again.

 _Maybe... just maybe this time, when I drown, they won't bring me back. Maybe this time, they'll finally give up on me._ That was the thought that lulled her to sleep, dreaming of the day that she would just be left to rest in peace.

 **To Destroy an Avenger**

"See you can't even tell the difference," Pietro assured his sister, after a recent session with Doctor Cho. Due to Ultron's attack on her lab and Avenger tower, they were back to working with the primitive stages of Cho's regenerative tissue machine, which required a few treatments rather than just one.

Wanda grimaced, the scars from the bullets were still present, even though Cho promised that after the final treatment they too would be healed.

"Trust me, I'm fine," pressed her brother, all he wanted was to get back to work. Sitting in his room, healing, was boring for the speedster, and the only obstacle standing in his way from actually being able to do something was his twin, younger, sister.

"You almost died Pietro."

"But I didn't, and besides the doctor said I'm clear; one more session and these scars will be gone too. Wanda, I can run, Hawkeye will be monitoring my training, you have nothing to worry about." He moved past her, ignoring the disapproving look she was shooting him. "It's not like I'm going back into the field. Just a few laps and whatever the old man has planned."

Wanda wasn't overly impressed with how nonchalantly her brother was behaving towards his near death experience, from the moment Doctor Cho brought him back he had been itching to run again, acting like he hadn't been riddled with bullets. Perhaps it was because he had no idea what his near death had done to her, maybe if he did he would be a little bit more receptive to her concerns.

She held her tongue though, it was a mute point and considering how long it has been since the fight against Ultron it would be pointless to bring it up now. "I just want you to be careful," her voice barely above a whisper.

He shot her one of his cocky grins, "You don't need to worry about your big brother, it's just training."

They made their way to the training floor, meeting up with the Vision, Falcon and War Machine. The Vision stayed off on his own, acknowledging the twins as they entered the room, while War Machine and Falcon compared tech; Stark had done an upgrade on both machines and this would be the first session for testing out the modifications.

"You see, if I hit this then these small rockets target the enemy, boom, game over," Sam Wilson bragged.

"That's cute, have you seen the giant canon strapped to my back?" Rhodey countered, "when Tony gives _you_ a canon, then we can talk."

"Whatever, man," Sam shrugged, turning his attention to the twins, "hey Maximoffs, what's better: rockets or a big, clumsy canon?"

"Doesn't the colonel have both?" Wanda pointed out, causing Sam's face to fall slightly.

"Dammit Wanda!" After weeks of working together, Wanda had developed a great rapport with the Falcon and War Machine; as such she was used to their competitions and teasing. It served as a good distraction, and there were times when she wondered if Rhodey and Sam were merely doing it to keep her mind off her injured brother.

"Avengers, line up!" The order from Captain Rogers, better known as Captain America, earned the attention of the five new avengers. He was flanked on either side by Natasha Romanoff, the Black Widow, and Clint Barton, Hawkeye.

"Most of you are going to be going into the simulation room with Natasha and myself today; we're going to be upping the ante this time so be prepared for anything."

This was the first that Pietro had heard of the simulation room and it immediately peaked his interest; it was obviously one of Stark's additions to the Avenger institute and he definitely wanted to see what it was about.

"Road Runner, you're with me," Barton signaled to Pietro, "we're working in the back."

"Awww."

The team's split up, Pietro pouting all the way to the track in the back of the training arena, while the rest followed Natasha and Steve out.

"So what are we doing?" asked the young enhanced, clearly disappointed by the outcome.

"Don't give me that, Steve's the one that still wants you taking it easy. I know firsthand how Dr. Cho's machine works." Clint slung his quiver across his shoulder, absent-mindedly brushing his side, the exact spot where he had gotten hit (thanks to a certain multi-coloured haired teen).

The younger man snorted indignantly, folding his arms across his chest. "Well?" Ever impatient, if he had to do this lame training while the others got to use the very cool sounding simulation room, he'd rather get started, if only so that he could finish as soon as possible.

"You're going to be running laps to start," the archer was fiddling with the bow now, testing the string and durability of the new weapon.

"Laps?" laughed Pietro, "I thought this was supposed to be training?"

"Just want to make sure you haven't lost any of your speed during your time off," smirked the older man, "word around the compound is that your sister made sure you couldn't even leave your room without a medical escort." Satisfied with how the bow was handling without an actual arrow in hand, Clint let it rest it against a bench near the track. "Once I'm satisfied with your speed, I'm going to shoot some arrows at you; and, depending on the type, you're either going to have to dodge or catch. Understand?"

Pietro cracked his neck, while he could guess that none of the arrows Clint was going to fire would actually hurt him, the challenge was infinitely better than just running laps, which he imagined was what the Captain had originally instructed.

"What are you waiting for, get running."

* * *

The room had a sticky warmth to it as she worked, punching the hanging sandbag over and over again. It was all she had, a new addition to her cell that kept her from going insane. She was still kept separate from the others in the facility, not allowed to interact with anyone aside from the scientists who studied her put her through her exercises. For whatever reason, they didn't trust her with the others.

With a sudden shake of her head, she stopped; her knuckles bruised from the abuse that she was putting them through, breathing heavily she stepped back away from the bag sinking down onto the edge of her bed. Her right eye twitched, as she felt a tremor rock through her body. A shaky hand touched the metal collar around her neck and panic surged through her. Panic, and then anger.

The cell door swung open as two people entered, one a scientist with a syringe in his hand, the other, a man referred to as the Huntsman. What looked like a car remote in hand, the Huntsman pressed a button and an electric shot from the collar into her nervous system, causing her entire body to seize. The breath left her as she tried to cry out, the only sound being that of her choking on her own breath and saliva. The shock stopped, and she lay there twitching for a moment before falling completely still.

"You'll only have a few minutes doctor, best move fast." The Huntsman moved out of the scientist's way, placing the remote in his pocket.

The scientist silently rolled the girl onto her back, finding a vein as swiftly as possible. "If we want to be assured that we can control her, we should be spending more time finding a more permanent means than having to keep increasing the dosage. It will only be a matter of time before we're going to be having to give her multiple injections; she'd be completely useless to his cause if we have to be careful not to run over her lucid-time."

"If we have to, then we'll fit a device to her collar and have the drug pumped into her system 24/7," snapped Huntsman, losing his patience with the mousey-man. "We're on a timeline; we don't have time to be playing with her memory again."

"She is extremely unstable, if we miscalculate one thing-"

"And that is why we have the best here, making sure nothing _is_ miscalculated. And I'm sure you don't want to make the mistake and have to join your predecessors." The Huntsman stopped trying to conceal the gun strapped to his hip, a silent reminder of why he had received his particular code name.

"Get her ready for a demonstration; he wants our investors to see where all their hard earned cash is going before we send them out."

The Huntsman walked out, leaving the scientist alone with the young woman. He waited patiently for the girl to wake, nervous that this might be the time where the serum wasn't strong enough; that it wouldn't suppress the memories they so desperately wanted her to forget. A few minutes passed, and her eyes opened, and thankfully it wasn't the wild gaze of a panicked woman, but the calm and curious eyes of patient 0765. The scientist let out a deep sigh of relief, and went through the script.

"Do you remember who you are?"

"I... am Blitzkrieg."

"And what is your mission?"

"To destroy the Avengers."

* * *

There is the first chapter. I've been so busy lately that I haven't been able to write for almost a year so I may be a little bit rusty. Let me know what you all think :)


	2. Chapter 2

Thank you all for the follows and reviews :) there shouldn't be as long of a break between chapter 2 and 3 as I do have 3 pretty much all written. Hopefully, I'll have chapter 4 ready to go shortly as well.

Enjoy

* * *

To say Pietro was bored was an understatement; after training, he had run around the outside of the headquarters at least twenty times, paced his room, even cleaned a bit, waiting for the others. He had questions, all regarding this new training room that he was currently barred from. A simulation room. What exactly did it simulate? Was it holograms? Weapons? Robots? Knowing Stark there was most likely robots.

He had been pleasantly surprised by Hawkeye's training session; it had actually been quite a bit challenging for the speedster. Always quick to jump first and ask questions later, he had struggled with following Clint's instructions at first, dodging the wrong arrows and catching ones that exploded with dye. He was lucky that the dye came out so easily, otherwise he'd be stuck with aqua and pink hair for lord knows how long. Now there was a conversation he was glad to not be having.

He now sat in the kitchen area of the base, tapping his foot impatiently against the ground as he snacked on an apple. He didn't know their ritual, whether they'd come here right after training, but at the very least it gave him something to do. The door opened, revealing his sister, Falcon, and the Vision; he doubted the Vision was here for a post workout snack but as he didn't mind the company of the android he didn't dwell to long on why he would join Wanda and Sam here.

"How was your first day back?" asked Sam, grabbing a drink from the fridge, leaning back on the island in the middle of the room.

Pietro shrugged, "Not bad. Did some laps and then the old man shot some arrows at me."

Wanda looked at her brother in horror, "He what?"

"You worry too much sister, it was not dangerous. The archer knows what he's doing."

"You wished to ask us something," the Vision could tell from the young man's demeanour that he was just being polite with the small talk, but was really only present for one reason.

"The simulation room," he began, "what is it?"

"Stark's new baby for us," Sam laughed.

"It creates scenarios for us to work through, some are rescue missions, others fighting. Certain criteria need to be met in order to pass and move onto the next one. Tony has said that he will come to update the software every few weeks so that we don't have any repeats unless we absolutely have to," explained the Vision.

"Robots? Weapons?"

"You know Tony," chuckled Sam, "he went all out; I'm talking the whole nine yards. You name it, it can do it. Shame it's going to be a while until you get to test drive it."

"Won't be that long," countered Pietro, "I've got one more session with Cho, Hawkeye will tell the Captain of all my good work and he'll realize that I am ready for it."

"It is likely that Captain Rogers will monitor your training session himself once Cho has cleared you," offered the Vision.

"See, next week I'll be in the simulation room with you, just you wait."

Wanda shook her head, not wanting to think of her brother being cleared for actual missions again; back into the line of fire. "You are sure everything went well? There was no residual pain? You didn't tire too early?"

"The old man managed to hit me a few times, but I guarantee that by tomorrow, I'll be back to my old self... maybe let him hit me once or twice to make him still feel good about his training methods. Don't want him losing faith in his role on the team."

"How considerate of you," Hawkeye's unmistakable voice came from behind the four, "I'm definitely using the more permanent dye tomorrow."

Pietro let out a low curse in Sokovian, he was very good about talking himself up but he didn't doubt that Clint would land a hit on him tomorrow, and now he had just given the older man a good reason to actually try. "I'm just making a joke, old man; we both know that you are a valued member of the team, and a great trainer."

"Nice try, road runner, but I think I'm going to enjoy seeing you walk around with parts of you covered in whatever bright coloured dye I think would suit you. Might teach you a little something called humility." To be honest, Hawkeye didn't have any permanent dyes, but he could at least let the younger man sweat over training tomorrow a little. Let him find out the hard way that he had been tricked.

"Avengers!" Agent Hill's voice came over the PA system, "we have a situation, meet in the debriefing room in 5 minutes."

Hawkeye stopped Pietro before he could run off, "Where do you think you're going?"

"I am an Avenger, right? I am going to the debriefing room."

"You were cleared for training, not missions. Either go to your room, back to training, or the rec room. You are not going anywhere near the debriefing room."

"But I-"

"If the Cap catches you near there, you'll be sitting out for much longer, you understand. Until you're cleared for duty, you don't get to argue," Clint's voice held an authoritative tone that was uncommon in the archer.

As the others rushed out, Pietro let out a disgruntled sound and made his way back to the training room; he was definitely not going to be able to sit still while his teammates and sister were out in the field.

* * *

"We're almost positive it's Hydra," Agent Maria Hill stated, bringing up a slide. "It's some sort of weapon that is being transported through the city, one of our sources tipped us off that it is alien based."

"I thought we were finished with the chitauri?" questioned Steve.

"This isn't chitauri," confirmed Hill, "we honestly have no idea what it is, which is why we need to get it out of Hydra's hands."

"Do you not usually send agents on missions such as this?" asked the Vision.

"Vision's right, this isn't our usual 'save the world from total destruction' kind of mission," agreed Clint.

"They've got some big guns protecting it, too big for our agents to handle."

"So you need some bigger guns to take them out," Rhodey nodded, "we talking about regular folks with actual big guns or people like the twins?"

"Guns. More of that strange alien technology to be exact." Hill showed a blow up of what looked like a gun of sorts. It had a wide barrel, knowing alien technology it was probably to shoot some sort of beam, energy or laser. A thick hilt with two separate triggers; there didn't appear to be a second barrel, which meant that it was possible the weapon was capable of shooting different types of ammo simultaneously.

"What are they transporting it in?" asked Natasha, examining the weapon from all possible angles.

Next slide showed a vehicle similar to the quinjets that the Avengers themselves were so fond of.

"One of Oscorps designs," Hill explained before anyone could ask. "They are one of the leading weapons manufacturers now, and will sell to anyone."

Oscorp was well known throughout the city for being the leader in multiple different franchises; if you needed medical supplies you called Oscorp, you needed new military machinery you called Oscorp, you needed the most advance technology... well you'd call Stark first and if he wouldn't give you what you wanted, you'd go to Oscorp, who would always make what the customer wanted if it meant they would turn a profit, no matter their intention.

They did just as much good as they did evil, but the evil wasn't made public; they were careful with their dealings, leaving their logos off of any invention that may end up in the news under bad publicity. The Oscorp name was slapped on every tube of the latest cancer research, on any machine or weapon that was currently being used by the US military, but for private owners who didn't specify what they wanted a machine or weapon for, the name would be missing. People could make assumptions when those devices would end up in the news after a bombing or massacre, but there was no direct link and so the company remained in the good graces of the common folk.

It was only those who looked beyond what they were seeing that knew what Oscorp was; those like former Shield agents and current Avengers.

It didn't help that Norman Osbourne was so good at feigning innocence when things did get leaked to the press. He had mastered the "if that was developed in my company it was without my approval" and "I will get to the bottom of who did it" speeches, would make a public show of firing some people, pretending that they were the culprits, and then go back to business as usual.

"So it's going to be an air interception," Clint checked.

"Think you can handle it Barton," teased Natasha.

"Well, it can't be any more difficult than your cradle delivery service."

"You'll have us in the air for backup," reminded Sam, "should be a piece of cake."

"So long as we don't get hit," interjected Rhodes.

Captain Rogers examined the carrier that was housing the alien weapons, "We'll stay in stealth until we're right above them, Clint will drop me down on top of the jet, and I'll find a way in. Sam and Rhodes, we'll have you set up a diversion, keep the pilot busy once I'm in; Nat and Vision will join me once we have a set opening, take out the ones protecting the weapons."

"And then I'll catch the weapons as you see fit," finished Clint, "why do I get the feeling it's going to be a cradle repeat."

"Can't exactly land first," said Natasha, "consider it a test for your amazing flying skills." Her teasing tone brought a smile to her friend's face, and he responded with a "yeah, no problem."

"What will I do?" Wanda asked.

"You'll stay with Clint to help with the delivery, and if the pilot gets any ideas aside from keeping the plane in the sky, we may need you to pop in and suggest that they do otherwise," concluded Steve.

Wanda nodded in understanding, not overly disappointed with her role in the mission. She was more than happy to sit out on the fighting and just be securing cargo.

"Avengers, let's move out."

* * *

"It is unclear what the motive behind the attack might have been, but one thing is clear, that we are lucky the Avengers were there to intercept before they could unleash whatever they had on the city," the Senator read off his cue cards.

"Mr. Stark has assured us that the weapons that were in their possession will be properly examined and locked away, so that no other party can get a hold of this dangerous technology."

Huntsman shut off the television, "It seems that the Avengers have some new players."

"We are prepared for the two with the combat suits, the android and the girl may pose a threat," Dr. Duncan responded. He was not the one who handled Blitzkrieg, but rather an overseer for all the enhanced that were made at the facility.

"What about sending Blitz against them?"

"She's not ready," her doctor spoke up, "she's still erratic with her gifts, she's just as likely to destroy a part of the city in the place of her targets."

The demonstration had ended before the press conference regarding the seizure of alien technology earlier that day. It was meant to be a covert mission, but if everything ever went smoothly than there would be nothing to fix in the world. The mission had been spotted and recorded through smartphones, and of course that lead to questions that needed to be answered.

"The big one should be more than enough for this test drive, see how he measures up against Captain America," Duncan suggested, "we'll cripple War Machine and the other one... and if we're lucky the android might suffer as well."

"One against four, possibly five? Are you sure?" questioned Huntsman.

"He can take a hit, may not be as indestructible as the Hulk, but luckily we're not sending him against that. We're gathering data, Huntsman, I'm sure he can go a few rounds against the Captain, Widow, Hawkeye and that new girl."

"And the android?"

Dr. Duncan smirked, "And the android."

* * *

"Well, Hill was right, definitely not chitauri," Barton confirmed, opening the cases.

"Stark's coming by to start the tests on them, hopefully we'll be able pinpoint what made them," said Rogers, picking one up to look at it more closely. "They're very light..."

"Perhaps we should try and get a hold of Thor, he may recognize the technology," suggested the Vision.

"I'll try giving Jane a call, if Thor's on earth he would have been in contact with her," nodded Natasha, leaving the lab.

Pietro lifted another weapon, "So what do they do?" He held it like a shot gun, trying to aim with his finger relaxed over the one of the two triggers.

Steve grabbed the weapon from him after setting his own down, "We don't know yet, and I'd rather we not find out by accident."

The speedster stepped back, his hands up in mock surrender.

"Nat, Clint, Vision, and I will be the only ones handling these until either Stark or Thor arrive and can identify what we're dealing with. These aren't toys to be played with. Sam, Rhodey, sorry to leave you out but-"

"It's all yours Rogers," chuckled Sam, "I'm more than happy to not have to touch anything alien."

Rhodes nodded his agreement with being left out, "Fighting's more my thing anyways. I mean sure, Sam and I have our experience handling weaponry, but we're talking human enemy weapons, not alien."

"Maximoffs, enjoy your evening off."

* * *

"I feel that they still don't exactly trust us, they are leaving us out," complained Pietro as he and his sister entered the rec room.

"You're just saying that because you're grounded until Dr. Cho says you can go back into the field," Wanda pointed out, "it is strange technology that none of us know, and you were playing with a gun."

"I wasn't going to shoot it."

"You had no idea how it works, you could have accidentally set it off and blown up the building."

"I don't think it would have blown up the building-"

"Why not? Loki's scepter created us, a single gem that is of alien technology, why couldn't one of their guns blow up our base?"

Pietro thought for a moment, "Because if it could, I don't think Hydra would have been able to get their hands on it." He paused before adding, "And I don't think our world would still be free of alien overlords."

Wanda made a noise of acknowledgement, before moving past him to turn on the television; she didn't mind unwinding with mindless shows at the end of a day, especially when considering what she and her brother had been denied during their experimentation. "You can keep worrying about our future overlords; I'm going to watch the show about the science nerds."

"It will happen, you'll see," her brother teased, as he began a game of foosball against himself. He was relieved that she had finally dropped the whole almost dying thing and was actually trying to joke with him.

"What's going to happen?" Sam asked, walking into the rec room, interrupting Pietro's game by attempting to join.

"Alien overlords," Wanda answered before her brother could.

"Of course, naturally," agreed Sam. "We've already got one alien frequenting our planet, makes sense that eventually more will come."

"Stark?"

"He'll be in tomorrow, probably in the afternoon. Has to gather some gear from his workshop and then he'll drive up, I guess he needed something more than the suit to transport whatever he's going to use to give those weapons the once over. No word on Thor, he's most likely off planet." Sam struggled against Pietro in the match, if only because the younger man's reaction time was that much faster than his own. "Hey Maximoff, you want to turn down your power there, make this an even fight?"

"Oh, you want me to go easy on you?"

"I didn't say anything about going easy, I'm talking about equality. Not exactly fair when one of us can move at the speed of sound."

"Maybe so, but anything less than what I am doing now is, technically, going easy."

"Then let's not include the technicalities."

"Think how good you'll feel if you beat me without me, how did you say it... powered down?"

The two went back and forth, as Wanda tried to drone their banter out with the popular sitcom; as much as she loved her brother and her new friends, sometimes it was hard being one of the only girls on the team, and Nat wasn't always available to hang like the boys were. She wasn't much for the testosterone based smack talk that was common among the boys of the team, her brother however dived into it without any hesitation, and even with the slight language barrier he always seemed to find some sort of comeback. It was new territory for her; teasing her brother was one thing, but even with her blooming friendship with War Machine and Falcon she was always careful with her teasing, never making any comment unless she was sure it wouldn't insult anyone else. Perhaps it was just because of the circumstances of how they all met, being their enemy first, that she felt the need to be overly cautious.

"That was a cheat shot!"

"Having trouble keeping up speedy? That was totally clean, and it's called a 'cheap' shot, not 'cheat'."

"Whatever Mockingbird, that was out when you scored, and you know it."

"Hey Wanda, want to run interference here?" Sam called over to her.

"Not particularly, I try not to take sides."

"You certainly seemed to be on Rhodes side earlier."

"You can't fight logic," she shrugged, "he had both, you only had one."

"She has point." Pietro always coming to her defense.

"Says the guy who's losing over here."

"That goal didn't count."

"It was legit, it counts."

"It was out!"

* * *

Stark paced around the lab that the weapons were being held in; one hand on his chin as he looked over the gun that Steve had taken out of one of the cases. "This is interesting," he muttered, more to himself than the others present. "Yeah, you can put that down right there, thank you," he motioned to a clear table as an agent helped carry in his equipment.

"What is interesting?" asked Natasha, getting to right to the point. She knew Tony well enough to know when he was waiting for people to give him their attention, ask questions, and that he would just continue making nondescript comments to himself until someone went ahead and asked.

"I was hoping that would last a little longer," he admitted, "but what's interesting is this weapon. I don't need FRIDAY set up to tell me that it's advanced by our standards, but pretty primitive when compared to the chitauri blasters we've experienced in the past." He managed to pry open part of the gun, taking out the ammo clip and emptying its contents on the table.

"How so?"

"We'll, let's start with the ammo." Tony brought up FRIDAY with his phone, and projected a copy of one of the chitauri weapons into the room. "These shoot energy blasts that can pretty much disintegrate whatever it hits, and is connected through some sort of link to the mothership; meaning it could, potentially, shoot forever so long as the mothership is intact. No clip, no extra ammo; there's no reload time needed, it's infinite. This one, however," he gestured to the new alien weaponry with a snap of his fingers, "is not. It does have clip that would need to be replaced, eventually. It actually leaves casings, traces, like any regular gun. It doesn't run on energy, in fact if it weren't for the difference of the projectiles that it shoots and the overall design, it could pass as a mortal weapon."

"But still no idea where it could have come from?"

"Not a clue. That would be the thunder god's expertise."

"Why does it have two triggers? I just see one set of ammo and it only has one barrel," it was Clint speaking up now.

"Good observation." Tony picked the weapon up off the stand it was on, looking to see if there was another clip somewhere. He let out a small 'ah ha' as he found what he was looking for, using a screwdriver to take off a piece on top. "Looks like some kind of explosive in here, I'm guessing both are set up to fire out of the same barrel but of course one trigger is for the, hmm, bullets and the other is for these grenade like things."

"At the very least, we know what it's capable of now," Steve said, "Natasha, can you see if you can get in touch with Jane again, ask her to let us know if Thor comes back; we need to know if this is something we should be worried about."

"You mean in case whoever invented these decides to come back for another round," checked Tony, "because from my experience with alien life forms, it's likely."

"It almost makes me miss the days when the greatest threat we had to worry about was regular people deciding that taking over the world was a good idea," sighed Clint, leaning back against a wall.

"Ah, the good old days," smiled Natasha.

"Sorry to interrupt this reunion," Agent Hill walked in, "but we got a call that I think we're going to need you guys to look into."

"Two days in a row, must be some evil mastermind at work," commented Clint, "more weapons?"

"Not exactly, there's a guy breaking the downtown," explained Hill.

"Wouldn't that be more traffic cops call?" asked Tony.

"He's breaking it with his fists. Hulk style."

"Banner?"

"No, not Banner. It's definitely not the Hulk; he's a big guy and strong, but otherwise appears normal. Possibly another enhanced."

"We should talk to the Maximoffs first, see if they know anything about another one," Steve nodded to Natasha, silently signaling her to go and fetch them. "Remind Pietro that he's still off duty though, the rest of us are suiting up. Hill, go get Rhodes and Wilson."

"You joining us Tony?" asked Clint.

"I think I'll sit this one out, don't want to steal the glory from the up and comers. And I think I'll keep playing with this, maybe there's some sort of calling card or manufacturers stamp. Have fun though, and tell Rhodey that since he, essentially, is taking my spot he's now in charge of wisecracks and better not be a disappointment."

Steve and Clint nodded to their old teammate and rushed out, Natasha having left as soon as she had received her orders; Clint to grab his quiver and bow and then to prepare the quinjet, while Rogers had to actually suit up.

All Avengers, minus Tony and Pietro, met in the hangar within a few minutes, Wanda quickly relaying to the others what she had told Natasha about the new enhanced. "As far as my brother and I know, we were the only survivors of Strucker's experiments. We had never seen any other possible enhanced, and if he had another facility he never mentioned it to us."

"It is possible that another Hydra agent had been working on it based on Strucker's research," said the Vision, "I imagine that for a project as important as this one seems that multiple agents may have had access to this information."

"How far are we from our target?" Steve called to Clint.

"We'll be landing shortly, don't want-" Alarms started going off, the quinjet beginning its decent far early than Hawkeye had planned.

"Uhh Clint, is there a reason why we're going into the building?" Natasha sounded a little panicked, going over the control panel.

"We've lost power, the quinjet's not responding."

"We need to get out of here now!" ordered Rogers, breaking open the jets door. "Nat, Clint grab a parachute. Wanda, can you fly at this altitude?"

The enhanced nodded, taking the cue to jump out. Vision followed after her as Falcon walked up to his friend. "Suits not powering up either, I don't think I'm going to be of much use in this fight."

"Rhodey, how's your suit?"

"Non responsive, had to force my way out of it," Rhodes now stood on the other side of his War Machine suit, grabbing an extra parachute for himself. "Let's talk this out on the ground."

Clint and Natasha had already departed from the jet, and Sam and Rhodes had walked up to the exit.

"You grabbing a chute?" asked Sam.

Steve looked at the drop. "Maybe just this once."

One by one, the remaining three let the jet before it hit the building that lay directly ahead of it, landing a few blocks away from their target.

"Alright, so that is something new that we've learned about our target," grumbled Barton, "he has the ability to shut down different types of power sources from blocks away."

"Either that, or there's another one Shield isn't aware of," added Natasha, "someone in hiding who isn't making a big show of breaking apart the city."

"From my experience, I think Natasha may be right," Wanda spoke up, "if they used the same technology that Strucker did than he probably only has the strength and may be a little more invulnerable than the average person."

"Vision, is this new threat affecting you at all?" Clint asked, jogging to keep up with Steve.

"So far nothing, but it could be because my power source isn't based on human technology. The mind gem may be something that cannot be interfered with."

"Let's hope so."

"Rhodey, Wilson, if you two don't feel safe going into this you can sit it out, no one will think any less of you in this situation," Nat offered.

Rhodes had passed Sam an extra regular gun, military grade. "It's one guy, I think all of us together can handle him. With or without suits."

The turned a corner and easily spotted their target. Maria Hill wasn't lying when she said he was a big guy, he was big in muscle and overall size; appearing as human like wrecking ball, he was as round as he was strong. As he punched the ground bits of the asphalt lifted up and he easily picked up the broken pieces, tossing them into building and vehicles; crushing any civilians that didn't get out of the way in time.

"Fan out," ordered Steve, "we'll try to surround him."

They walked towards him, Clint fixing an arrow to his bow and both Rhodes and Sam taking aim.

"My name is Captain Steve Rogers, stand down and we will not hurt you!" Steve called, once everyone was in position, gaining the attention of the stranger.

He turned towards them, his eyes blazing with anger. "Avengers," he growled, cracking his knuckles.

"What's your name son, we just want to help," Steve was hoping to talk him down.

The larger man roared at Steve in response, and charged towards him like a raging bull. He lifted his arms above his head, swinging them down towards Captain America. "I AM RAMPAGE!"

* * *

Sorry everyone who was hoping for a look at Blitzkrieg's gifts, but she's not going to be in the field for a little while yet. Enjoy Rampage though :)


	3. Chapter 3

Just as a bit of a reference here, I imagined the Twins to be about 18 in AoU, I don't know if they were supposed to be, but given Pietro's facial hair I can't see him being much younger. Anywhozzels, back to the fight against Rampage. This is a little bit of a shorter chapter, but this will probably be shortest chapter in the entire series if I can help it.

* * *

Steve caught the stranger's arms before they could hit him, Rhodes and Sam now opening fire on the large man. He certainly was strong, but he was slow which made it easy for him to counter the attack.

Rampage turned his hardened eyes towards Rhodey, snarling bitterly, he moved wrenched his arms free and took off towards the colonel; chucking a piece of broken road at him. Colonel Rhodes dodged the attack, albeit with a little difficulty, continuing his assault. As more and more Avengers joined in the assault the man didn't seem to know who to go for, who to focus on. All he was capable of doing was chucking bits of the asphalt and whatever else he could get his hands on at random, hoping to hit someone.

"He's strong alright," Natasha commented, "but not very smart... and not fast enough to stand up to all of us at once."

"And he can take a hit," Sam agreed, "these bullets are as effective as mosquito bites."

"The madder he gets, the more erratic his attack. We keep pissing him off, I don't think we'll have much to worry about," added Barton, firing an explosive arrow in the man's direction. Not intending to him, but just to annoy him.

* * *

"I thought you said Rampage could handle them?" Huntsman growled at Dr. Duncan as the observed the fight from a safe distance.

"All of our research pointed to this being a success." The doctor was panicking, "We didn't expect him to be-"

"So slow in comparison? We _know_ how fast Captain America is, two of the new ones can fly, they have an assassin, an expert marksman _and_ two veterans who apparently don't need their suits to be able to pin him down and you didn't think you might want to up his speed even a little!" He was livid. When the boss was away, he was in charge and any failures would come back to him. The last thing he wanted was to have to explain himself thanks to incompetent scientists.

"My apologies sir," Dr. Duncan was trembling, "we should have sent more out with him."

"Call him back, this is just humiliating."

"Yes, sir, right away."

* * *

"The moment he tires, we find a way to restrain him," ordered Rogers, moving in close to Rampage and taking him on one on one. Steve, of course, was landing a lot more hits than the larger target, but they didn't even seem to stun him.

"If he tires," countered Natasha, she managed to hit him once with her stun baton before that failed on her.

Rampage swept his arms out, managing to catch both of them and force them backwards; he pounded his fist multiple times in pure rage, getting ready to charge them again.

"I'm going to try and wrestle him to the ground when he charges," Steve told her, motioning for her to back off. He took a stance similar to a cowboy readying to catch a charging cow.

"Good luck with that."

Before the man could make a move, however, his whole body seized and he yelled out in pain. He turned his head away from the Avengers, as though debating running. Another, short seizure and a yelp of pain seemed to help him make up his mind as he fled from the field.

"Don't let him get away!"

Captain America's order fell mute as a jet came to the man's rescue, hovering a few feet above the ground allowing him to leap into it, before flying off.

The team of seven stared in slight confusion as to what exactly had just taken place. It became blatantly obvious that this was some kind of setup; perhaps Barton wasn't too far off when he made the joke about a mastermind at work. Someone was calling them out, and they had no idea why.

"Powers back on," Sam announced, breaking the stunned silence, "whoever it was messing with us must have taken off with that jet."

"Could it be Hydra, as you suspected?" asked Wanda.

"I'm not so sure anymore." From what Steve knew of Hydra was that they weren't the type to pull someone out of the field, unless they were in charge, everyone was expendable to them. While at first all signs seemed to keep pointing to Hydra, it now just left him confused.

"Let's return to base... see if we can shed some light on this."

* * *

"You must admit, Huntsman, at least one good thing has come out of that encounter." Dr. Duncan was groveling, trying to find anything, even the tiniest detail that might appease his supervisor.

"And aside from presenting your incompetence to the entire organization what would that be, exactly?"

"Blackout's gifts worked better than expected. She managed to disable both suits as well as the quinjet without having to see them. And then mid combat she took out Black Widow's weapons."

Huntsman exited the jet, walking passed Rampage and the much smaller Blackout, a lithe girl with electric blue, lime green, and white hair in a mohawk type fashion. "I suppose that is something of an accomplishment." He paused, turning back towards the doctor. "Get a small group of them together; have them ready for a rematch for in two weeks and fix Rampage's glitch. I don't expect them to defeat the Avengers, not yet, but at the very least I expect a better display of what they are capable of. This will be your last chance, am I understood doctor?"

The doctor swallowed hard, "Perfectly, sir."

Huntsman began his walk back to his living quarters, "I will be reporting to him about this failure today, keep that in mind."

Duncan exhaled deeply, trying to calm his racing heart. He knew how thin the ice he was on was, but he needed to be able to focus in order to ensure it would not break. "Bring Rampage down to my lab, we need to fix his speed," he told some of the younger scientists who had come to meet him. "Blackout can go back to her cell; she's done for the day."

Two guards escorted her back to cell 0766, where faintly one could hear the sounds of 0765 attacking the sandbag in her room, as per usual.

"Makes me nervous that one," one of them muttered, motioning the cell door of 0765.

"Why she's perfectly contained?"

"You're new so I'll forgive you for your ignorance, there's a reason they call her Blitzkrieg you know."

"Yeah, all of their names fit whatever gifts they've developed. Blackout can disrupt any power source, Rampage is strong and the angrier he gets the stronger he gets. Sleeper can-"

"No, I mean, with her it's _more_ than just a fitting name. Watch one of her sessions, you'll see what I mean."

Blitzkrieg overheard the guards talking on the other side of her door but didn't pay any mind. Whatever they were speaking of didn't concern her. In her mind, the words of the doctor played over and over like a mantra, warping her thoughts until it was the only truth that mattered. The Avengers are evil; the Avengers are the enemy; the Avengers must be destroyed. With each thought, she punched a little harder, as though believing the punching bag was one of them. It would have to do until she was finally released to do what she had to, to make the world safe.

* * *

It was a little awkward calling Hill to come pick them up because their jet crashed into a building, and telling Stark to send in his relief to fix said building, while having to explain what had happened.

"So the big guy can disable power sources as well?" Hill asked, while flying back to their base.

"No, not him. We think there was someone else in the area," answered Steve.

"Aside from the ones on the jet who picked him up?"

"They could have been on the jet," suggested Clint, riding as co-pilot, "while the big guy may not have been overly effective against us, the other one could have enough control to only take out the enemy's technology."

"Are we dealing with Hydra then?"

"No, I don't think we are." Steve folded his arms over his chest, trying to decide how he was going to explain his theory to the others, "And I don't think that was the last we've seen of 'Rampage'."

"I don't think we have much to worry about if we face him again, especially once Pietro's back in the game," Natasha said, "he'd be able to keep that guy busy for hours."

The team shared a light laugh at that, mostly because of the truth behind it. Considering Rampage was too slow to hit even the most normal of the Avengers, there was no way he'd be able to catch the speedster and Pietro had a bit of a knack for pushing the wrong buttons.

"We may have to put him back in the field sooner than I'd like," admitted Steve.

"He can handle it," Clint spoke up before Wanda could object; "he's been doing fine in our training sessions. The only reason Cho hasn't cleared him yet is because she wants to show that even without her highest technology at hand she can still erase scars."

"Perhaps the doctor has a good reason not to clear him," argued Wanda.

"As his S.O., I can say with confidence that there is nothing physically or medically wrong with the kid." He flipped a few switches on the control panel as they were nearing the base, "Mentally, however, that's something I can't confidently answer, coming from what I knew of him before."

The jet slowed, touching down on the launch ramp, as the wings folded up and the engines stilled, the ramp lowered down beneath the earth, into the hangar. The speedster was waiting for them, having watched the fight on the television, he was curious to find out what they knew. Stark had given his input on the fight, guessing at what was going on but the he wanted firsthand accounts, if he couldn't fight then at the very least he shouldn't be left out of discussions.

Wanda was first to leave the jet, upset that not one of them had listened to her protestations to her brother being allowed to join in on missions. "Well, you've got you wish," she spat as she stormed passed him.

"I take it I am back on the team," Pietro commented as the other members exited.

"You were on a medical leave, not off the team," Clint pointed out, "try not to get the two mixed up."

"All because of a fat man with some anger issues?"

"We can't deny that you'd make an amazing distraction; keep the big guy busy so we could find what they're playing at."

"More than one?"

"At least two, Cap's willing to bet there might be even more. And now we need to find out what they want. Starting tomorrow, you're going into the simulation room-"

"Yes!"

"And, hopefully, Stark will have upgraded the room to include possible different enhanced that we might face."

"Don't worry, FRIDAY's already in the process of adding new programs, I had an enhanced one made up weeks ago," Stark joined the conversation, "so why were Rhodey and Sam naked during the fight? After all that work I put into their suits."

"Unseen enhanced," Captain America answered, "able to disable power sources. Took out the quinjet, both Sam's and Rhodes' outfits, and Nat's stun batons."

"Sounds like a fun challenge," grinned Tony, "I was starting to get bored with Shield's tiny upgrade requests; this might actually take some thought." He walked with the others, playing with his phone –well, really inputting intel into it so that he might be able to start running scenarios. "And Vision, he wasn't affected at all?"

"Affirmative, Tony, whatever this unseen enhanced did, did not affect me," confirmed the Vision.

Tony thought for a bit, "Did anything happen before the loss of power? An energy surge, it might have just felt like some sudden turbulence in the jet?"

"Nothing, the power just cut out."

"Huh..." He started typing variables, "I'm going to need some more time with this, if this guy reappears let me know, I'll have something prepared."

"You think you can already counter this guy's ability?" asked Natasha, for the first time impressed by Tony's ingenious.

"No, but I think I might have a way to collect more data." He briefly looked up from his phone, "Then I might be able to counter this guy's ability."

* * *

Steve spent his evening as he did most, in the gym separate from the training area. It was quieter as the new recruits, both Shield and Avenger alike, tended to like to work out on the training floor as it was a little more hi-tech. The Captain was more at home facing machines that he could easily recognize, punching bags, weights and stationary bikes and treadmills; he didn't need a lesson on how everything worked or how to turn it on as he already knew. True, the first time he used the treadmills and bikes from this day and age, he did need a quick once over of how it all worked, but now he was just as comfortable with the mechanics as he was with a 20lb bell.

"So, what makes you so sure it's not Hydra," Natasha interrupted his workout, startling him. "Sorry, I forget how quiet I can be sometimes."

"It's not their usual behaviour," he answered, once he settled himself. "Hydra's motto, cut off one head, two more in their place? They're not above sacrificing their own; _they_ wouldn't have pulled a failed experiment out of fight he couldn't win. They didn't even pull Bucky, their answer to me, out of the helicarrier when it was going down."

"Maybe they mean to make him better, that might have just been a test run." Natasha stood behind the punching bag, not even bothering to try and brace it for him.

"It still doesn't seem like Hydra, I don't know, maybe it's just a feeling."

"But you're positive."

"Everything I know about them says that it's someone else."

"Alright," Natasha nodded, "I trust you. I'll keep an ear to the ground; see if any new thugs are trying to make a name for themselves."

"Fury and Hill?"

"They're getting in touch with... some friends of ours, have a little bit more access to the worldwide grid."

Steve fell quiet for a moment, focusing on the sandbag. "That was one of Oscorp's jets that extracted him, wasn't it?"

"Oscorp won't disclose their clients to us, their claiming it wasn't. Apparently, we're not the only ones who saw the resemblance."

"Always have to be difficult."

"Well, when it jeopardizes their reputation, I can sort of see the appeal. They could lose a lot of investors and clients if they confirm it as one of theirs."

"Couldn't they just say one of their jets went missing, implied it was stolen?"

Natasha laughed, "They know if they confirm it as one of theirs we'd have all the information we need to do a full search; we'd have access to every illegal sale they ever took part in."

"And of course they don't want that."

"Oscorp would be shut down faster than Pietro can run."

Steve threw a towel across his shoulders, mopping at some of the sweat gathering on his forehead. "That's something else I wanted to talk about. Why haven't we given the twins codenames yet?"

"Clint already has."

"Road Runner is not a codename."

"It is fitting... especially if we rename Clint Wile-E-Coyote."

He smiled, taking a drink of water, "We'll talk about this later."

* * *

Don't worry, there will be a more intense battle later on, Rampage is definitely not the strongest member of this new team and sort of has to do with the overuse of super strength that you see in comics. And part of my own personal preference of not being a huge fan of it as a power. So why use it? 'Cause there always has to be one person who's not up to par on the baddie team. And I'm going to have fun with Pietro and him later.

See you next time!


	4. Chapter 4

This was supposed to be posted two days ago, however my computer had other ideas, so apologies for the delay... might start using google doc and notebooks to get this story out lol

* * *

"It's been over a week, and no sign of our friend," Fury had decided to grace the Avengers with his presence. "Whoever they were, they went under without a trace."

"A jet like that, it's going to be noticeable, someone had to have seen it," Clint pointed out, "even in stealth mode, Oscorp's jets can't fully disappear."

"This one did. No sightings, as soon as it got out of the city, it vanished."

"And still no leads as to who was behind it," added Natasha, "whoever it is, is being very careful. Maybe because their heavy hitter isn't much of a threat yet, they don't want to bring us knocking at their door if they can't stand up to us."

"I finally get to go back to work and nobody wants to come out to play," Pietro complained.

"We should be grateful for the peace-"

"I wish we could be Wanda, but this silence just means their gearing up for a bigger strike," Steve sighed.

"Calm before the storm," grumbled Sam.

"And we've got no new intel to go on; yes, the big guy's too slow to hit us, but we don't know much about the other one. They knocked out all of our tech, but who's to say that's where it stops. They could be absorbing that power and unleash back on us."

"Does Stark have a means of gathering anything if you were to engage them again?" Hill asked.

"We have been discussing options," Wanda answered, surprising the rest of the group as this was new to them. "Of all of us, we thought the other one would be less likely to target me for anything electronic."

"Maybe we're going about this the wrong way," Colonel Rhodes interjected, "instead of waiting for them to make their next move, why don't we try drawing them out?"

"It's an option, though we don't even know if they'd see it, considering how unprepared they were the first time, it's likely they weren't expecting Wanda or Vision. Meaning-"

"Their intel is dated, pre-Ultron. They had the other one there to take out Stark and the jet; unlike Colonel Rhodes and Sam, he's not trained in military combat, probably wouldn't have fought, but observed, one less target."

"So they aren't keeping tabs on the news," Natasha added to Steve's point, "which means calling them out could be ineffectual."

"For now they're calling the shots."

* * *

Huntsman watched a new enhanced run through a series of tests; it was a young man of average height, he wasn't bulky by any means but did have some muscle to him. Dark skinned with buzzed hair, he dodged obstacles, attacking others with bones that grew from his wrists like swords.

"That is Talon," Dr. Duncan noticed how attentively Huntsman was watching the testing sessions.

"I want him with Rampage on the next assault."

Duncan nodded in understanding before saying: "You'll be happy to know that we've managed to increase Rampage's speed by at least 60 percent."

"Will that be enough?"

"He... not enough for the Captain, but more than enough for the regulars, I don't think we'll ever make him capable of keeping up with Captain Rogers. That's what we'll have the others for."

Huntsman nodded, his mood tempered by his observations of the new subject.

"Talon, however, should be capable of keeping up with him, and his combat skills are well above of that of the others we've tested."

"I want Blitzkrieg on the next attack."

"But Dr. Singh said-"

"I don't care. She will be there, if the others fail at making our point this time, you _will_ use her. Otherwise, keep her contained on the jet. We cannot afford anymore mistakes."

* * *

The simulation room whirred to life turning the round room with blank walls into whatever the program told it to. In this case it was a replica of a city, intended to create a possible scenario against the enhanced they had already encountered and others that may make an appearance. It wouldn't be completely accurate with its portrayals, as what they knew of Rampage was based off of a quick fifteen minute fight, but its intention was to prepare them for the future.

"Pietro, you are to focus only on Rampage," Steve ordered as the system began to create robots with the form of Rampage, "keep him trained on you. The rest of us are to work with whatever FRIDAY throws at us."

It was the same scenario they had been doing since the fight, a Rampage bot, Falcon and War Machine disabled, the only difference was whatever enhanced FRIDAY created for them. They were exploring every possible gift that could have been given to a human, even recreating the twins. That one had given the team a bit more trouble, Pietro had never had to face someone as fast as himself and it made it harder for him to stay on mission.

The fight was just about to begin, when the room powered down.

"Cap, the big guys back and he brought some friends," came Hill's voice, "they're currently making a mess of the interstate."

"Alright team; let's see what they have for us. Suit up."

* * *

Clint had parked the jet twenty blocks from where Hill had indicated the hostels were; he was being cautious, not wanting a repeat of the last time they had engaged the enhanced. Wanda and Vision would fly from that point, Pietro would go by foot, and the other five would take the jeep supplied by Stark, containing a new battery and engine, an attempt to test if the unseen unsub could really disable all forms of technology.

The jeep died before the overpass, confirming that they could, at least, disable that one as well. They found the rest of their waiting for them at the turn off, Vision and Wanda having gotten a good look at the situation from above.

"There are three of them up there," Vision pointed, "Rampage and two unknowns."

"One of them could be the one who can take out the power," shrugged Pietro, "I could knock him out."

"We'll stick to what we had been planning for," Steve stated, "you keep the big guy busy for us."

"Yeah, yeah," the younger man was starting to get bored of that play, having had to do it for the past week. At least he'd probably get a more entertaining rise out of the real Rampage than the robot he often ran circles around.

They ran up the off ramp, all of them now getting a good look at their new opponents. Both were male, one with darker skin and what looked like swords sticking out of his wrists; the other looked to be of Asian descent, but there was no tell tale sign to what he was capable of. Rampage spotted them first, and snarled, picking up a trapped vehicle and throwing it in their direction.

The single action alerted to the Avengers to something they hadn't been planning for, he was faster.

"Pietro!"

"Going." The speedster raced towards the man before he could hurt anyone else.

"Vision, Wanda, see if you can get some sort of response from the smaller one, we need to figure out what he can do. Nat, you and I will take on the one with the swords. Clint, Rhodey, Sam, cover fire; assist anyone that may be struggling."

There was no mutter of agreement, just immediate response, all members taking their mark.

"Boy, you are big one," Pietro got Rampage's attention.

The big man growled at him, and went to try and smash his fist down on him; which Pietro easily dodged.

"Going to have to be faster than that," mocked the young man, grinning at Rampage.

Rampage roared in fury, charging down Pietro, who lead him straight into one of the highway dividers.

"You are not very smart are you?" This certainly was a lot more fun than teasing the robot version.

The man snorted, picking up a piece of the broken concrete and throwing it as hard as he could towards the silver haired boy, almost catching him off guard.

Above them, it didn't take Vision and Wanda long to discover what the new boy could do as he teleported across the road and around the sky dodging their attacks. Because of his abilities he was almost as hard to hit as Pietro, teleporting to a different area of the field as soon as they tried to use their own abilities against him.

Rhodey and Sam did their best to try and encourage the teleport not to venture too far by send up sprays of bullets, keeping him away from Captain America and Black Widow's battle. They didn't worry as much about Rampage and Pietro as the speedster was just as much a blur as the other man, it was unlikely he would be able to teleport in time to disrupt the young Maximoff.

The other young man didn't seem to be having any issues taking on both the Captain and Black Widow, dodging their attacks while landing a few of his own. His hits didn't do as much as the Captain's would, and he was well aware that getting hit was going to hurt a hell of a lot more, so he stayed light on his feet, only going for the attack when he was sure he wouldn't get hit in response.

Natasha switched to her guns, knowing that her batons would be taken out as soon as she tried to use them, and she was nowhere near as fast as the newcomer and Steve. At the very least she could help Rhodes and Sam keep the teleport pinned down as he was the one giving them the most trouble.

Talon dodged the Captain's shield as he threw it, aware of its boomerang effect from the old videos that the scientists at the facility had shown them. He tried to land a slash at his opponent's torso as he had moved in to try and land a few punches of his own. He ducked under the outstretched arm, aiming a kick at his legs, trying to knock them out from beneath him.

Steve leapt back, narrowly missing the attack; he caught his shield as it returned to him, having bounced off a few of the abandoned cars in the vicinity of the fight. Talon went to stab him again and he managed to catch the attack, breaking the bone with his shield.

Talon let out of a yell of pain, falling back. He gripped his injured wrist, stepping back from the fight; glaring at the Captain, eyes burning with hatred. His breath came in harsh gasps, as he lowered the arm, closing his fist tightly.

"We can end this now if you just tell us who's behind this," Steve promised, giving the boy some space.

A new bone grew in the place of the damaged one, and with a savage roar he charged at Steve again, moving with new vigor to try and hurt him.

"Clint! Have anything that might take this one out?" asked Steve, barely keeping up with this new burst of energy.

"Not without risking hitting you, Cap, he's getting way too close," the archer responded, "not a clear shot." Clint had already attempted to his the young upstart, but found that the man did as much dancing around Cap as Pietro did Rampage, he could take the risk and fire one of his disrupter arrows, and potentially knock Steve out; or, considering it is Captain America, slow him down slightly.

He fired some explosive arrows at the teleport and around Talon and the Captain, trying to throw the younger men off their attack. In this instance, he felt quite useless; the only one he could clearly hit was the big one, whom Pietro was having absolutely no problem with. The Cap had made it clearly on their way over that he would rather not have any casualties until they knew what they wanted and while Clint had plenty of concussive ammo; his targets were a little more erratic than the average army that they had a tendency of fighting. Organized, predictable; these three seemed to fight without reason and it made them unpredictable.

Maybe Maximoff wasn't too far off when he called him old man.

* * *

Huntsman watched the battle from the safety of the jet, with doctor Duncan accompanying him. In the back, Blitzkrieg sat, her arms bound and head down, seemingly unaware of her surroundings. Her breathing was even; eerily calm for the situation she may be thrown into. The bangs of her dark hair folded over her face, the lighter highlights caused by the appearance of her gifts nearly disappearing in the cascade of locks. Her ice blue eyes seemed fascinated with the floor, but in reality she was not focused on one thing in particular, her mind was too busy trying to determine what was real and what wasn't.

"Our test seems to be going much better than last time," Duncan stated, cheerfully, "Phaser is having no issues taking on the young girl and android. Talon is managing to keep up with Captain America, though Rampage's performance-"

"He's against an enhanced that can move at the speed of sound, of course he can't keep up. You need to work on his control, if they can goad him into fighting whomever they choose than they hold the power over him. He needs to learn to focus on those he can actually fight." He turned away from the fight, glancing at his favourite weapon: "Let Blitzkrieg off her leash."

"I thought she was only here if the others weren't performing as planned?"

"We are making a statement, doctor, and it's best we make sure they understand that their days are numbered."

Dr. Duncan approached Blitzkrieg cautiously, bending down to remove the cuffs from her wrists; they weren't regular handcuffs, but manufactured to ensure that the enhanced couldn't move her fingers. As the metal binds fell away from her and into his hands, the doctor looked up at the face of the young girl, who still didn't seem to realize what was going on around her, not even reacting to the weights being lifted from her wrists.

"Blitzkrieg," called Huntsman.

The girl slowly lifted her head, turning towards the old man while remaining sitting. The voice was familiar to her, and with it came the clear image of the man; real.

"You will be going out there soon," he explained, walking towards her, "today you will not be destroying the enemy, you're just-" he paused, searching for the right words "doing a test. Am I understood?"

She remained quiet at first, her eyes moving slightly as though trying to process what she had just been told. The enemy was out there, but she wasn't to destroy them; it was just a test. Slowly, she responded, "Understood."

Huntsman smiled, the drug she was under might mess with her mind but at the very least it made her very easy to control; always agreeing to whatever she was ordered.

"Call Phaser to come get her, it's time for the Avengers to get a glimpse of their future."


	5. END OF HIATUS

Hiatus end notice!

Sorry about my unexpected disappearance all those months ago. My computer died right after I moved (I went from needing no furniture to needing to buy beds, tables, chairs, dressers etc.) so my plan was to get a new one the following month, once I was back in the green. My car had other ideas... literally every single month I've had something come up with my car that made it so I couldn't replace my laptop. I've pretty much been living paycheque to paycheque but now I've finally back to having some extra, non-emergency, cash and was able to get a new one. I also had a long winded chat with my car about not needing anything else replaced for at least a year.

Luckily for all of you, I have been writing what I can in a notebook, so now I just need to type it all up. You should start seeing regular updates again starting monday.

Thank you all for your patience.

Blackamber41


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